


Early Morning

by lillybatts



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, I'll update relationships and warnings as they come up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24950539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillybatts/pseuds/lillybatts
Summary: Good ol Wild and Wind bonding with a side of hurt (a lot of hurt, actually, but it gets better)
Relationships: Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe), Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 115





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic! I've been wanting to write for quite a while but never actually got around to trying until now! I hope you all enjoy :)

It had to have been at least two in the morning at this point, and Wild couldn't sleep. It was only early morning, so still dark, and everyone was sleeping out in the open for once. Something about "lifting their spirits" Wind had said. And honestly? He was glad for it. It felt better to be sleeping outside in an open area rather than a stable or an inn. Ironically, more home-like. There was something different about looking up at the sky on a dark night, seeing the stars, feeling the breeze that's maybe slightly too cold (not that you care), and just feeling. Feeling anything, something. Letting a silent prayer loose to whatever gods may be listening.

It's been at least a month and nothing worthwhile has happened to help anyone, no clues, nothing of interest, just, nothing. It was starting to get at everyone. Wild noticed how everyone was just a bit more on edge lately, if not a little careless. Legend, now, was just begging for something interesting to happen, even if it happened to be something dangerous. And Wild could tell Wind felt similarly, it was easy to see the disappointment on his face, regardless of how well he tried to hide it, whenever the day was coming to an end and nothing noteworthy had happened. Hyrule and Four seemed to be handling it a bit more well, but that's probably because they're used to things being more uneventful. Wild could sympathize with that.

To get back to the point, however, at the moment, Wild could not sleep. It wasn't something concerning, he was sure, it was just as simple as not being able to. Though something could be amiss. This wasn't that unusual for him, though most nights it would have a cause, be it nightmares (granted, everyone got those), injury (also something everyone dealt with), or just being stuck trying to remember something important. Maybe important?

It's not that that matters. At least right now. Wild sighs and closes his eyes for the 50th time that night, trying once again to get some semblance of shut-eye, and finally, he does.

***

He was riding his horse in the direction of Death Mountain. Following Zelda there, of course. She wanted to check out a shrine that had recently been discovered there, to see if maybe this one, after the countless others, could be of some use. Plenty of supplies had to be packed for this trip, as a place so aptly named "Death Mountain" is not a place you just waltz into unprepared. Plenty of flame-resistant potions, and even some lizards, in case they needed to make more. Along with the general assortment of weapons.

"Link!", Zelda called from up ahead, "do you reckon that we'll get lucky this time around? I do not mean to jump to conclusions, but I have high hopes this time!" She was absolutely beaming, but Link knew this probably wasn't going to be of any help, as usual. Not that he would let her hopes down, though.

He nodded enthusiastically, trying to match her clearly hopeful mood.

She looked at him happily, though with a slight air of skepticism, "You really think so this time? I hope you aren't just saying that again, you aren't here to lie!"

He quickly put his hands up and shook his head frantically. He didn't mean to make it seem like a lie! Actually, he meant the complete opposite. He may not be here to lie, but he's also not here to sour Zelda's mood. 

"Good then! Lets keep going, shall we?"

And go they did. And they kept going. And going. And- it was getting kind of rocky up this mountain wasn't it? Maybe a little too rocky. His horse was stumbling quite a lot. Actually, it was more of a shaking? This might not have been such a good idea to go on horseback. The shaking was becoming a bit too much to handle, now.

"Wild!", Zelda called from up ahead. Or- behind, rather? Why did she sound so close to his head? Was she above him? He looked around only to not see her. He started to panic, just a little. Maybe she was calling him because she was in trouble? What if he's too late?

"Wild!", she yelled once more. Wait. Wild? Since when did Zelda call him that?

"Wild!", a hard shake, "Wild wake up already!"

***

Wild looked up at the person violently shaking him, only to see Wind kneeling above him. No Zelda. No horse. "Oh," he started, "hey, Wind."

"Hey?," Wind looks slightly mad at him. He wonders what was so startling. "I wake up, look over to you, only to see you laying stupid still with your eyes wide open and mumbling nonsense, and all you have to say is 'hey Wind'." Oh. 

Wild looked Wind over for a split second, thinking something over for a bit before replying, "I'm sorry, really, that just happens sometimes, honest. Though…"

"Though…?"

"Though why are you awake right now?," Wind looked nervous. "it's clearly not light out yet, so you have to have a reason."

"I uhm," he started, "had to…pee?"

"Wind you're a terrible liar, no offence."

"I'm not lying!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"It's fine to admit Wind, you couldn't sleep right?," Wild guessed, he seemed to be right too, with Wind looking down in slight embarrassment, "Hey, don’t feel bad about it,” he reasoned, “I couldn't either, earlier, I mean.”

“Are you sure you’re not just lying to make me feel better?,” Wind stated apprehensively.

“Of course not! Why would I lie about that?” The more reasonable question would be ‘why is everyone so ready to accept i’m a liar recently’ but he kept that out of the conversation. “It has something to do with how we haven’t been busy, huh.”

“Well no not really- I-”

“Wind.”

"Thats a dumb reason to not be able to sleep am I right? Like, how dumb do you need to be?"

"Wind."

He let out a deep breath, “Yeah,” he resigned, “you’re right, i’m sorry.”

Wild moved over a little on the ground, and patted the area next to him. Wind took the hint and sat down. The grass was a little damp, now, most likely from the morning. Actually…"Hey Wild?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you sleep on the grass when we have enough blankets and stuff for everyone?"

"Oh," Wild began, "I just think it's more comfortable," Wind doubted that, the ground was hard and more often than not you had some kind of boulder underneath you in an uncomfortable place. "Really! I mean it," he moved his hair away from his face, "I just used to sleep like this a lot during my journey. Sure there were stables and stuff around, and I'd use them when I really needed to, but if possible I would always be outside one way or another. I'm sure you get it, living on a boat and all."

"That kinda makes sense, after being on a boat that long it was sorta hard to get used to sleeping on land, or, it took a while, i mean" Wind looked up at Wild, "It's like, once you get so used to something after having done it for so long it's hard to go back to dealing with something else, right?"

Wild nudged Wind a little, smiling, "Exactly, which! Is why I think you're having a bit of an issue with sleeping. You got so used to having things happen all the time, that having no danger or anything fun happen, you're...what's the word…"

"Restless?"

"Yes! Exactly"

"So what do you suppose we do about it then? Or, what do you suppose I do about it then?"

"I suppose we should go exploring," Wind looked confused.

"Now? But everyone's asleep?"

Wild leaned down a little and grinned, albeit a bit mischievous, "Yep! That's the point, we go out and explore now, and be back by daylight. I'm sure we'll find something fun to do, and nobody will even notice! Plus, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss being a little reckless." Wind smiled back up at him.

"You mean it? I mean, are you sure? I'm starting to feel like i'm the older one here all of a sudden," Wind said.

Wild stood up and dusted himself off, pulling Wind up after him, before quickly checking around if anyone was awake (nobody was), "Of course i'm sure, Wind," he said in a more hushed tone, "Go grab your sword just in case we come across trouble, and we can get going."


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twi goes out looking for the boys, meanwhile, said boys end up having a bit of fun.

Twilight awoke not too long after Wild and Wind departed from camp. He felt that something was a bit off, and turns out, his hunch was correct. Both boys were completely missing. For how long, he couldn't be too sure, but he did know that whatever reason they were missing couldn't be a good one. His first step in his plan of action originally was to wake up someone else to help locate them, someone preferably with a bit more authority than himself (or rather, that he gave himself credit for), like Time, or maybe even Warriors, though, maybe not him. Something about him seemed a bit off from day one.

He opted to decide against this however, in favor of searching himself. The less people out and about, especially in this Hyrule, the better, the thought. Wild's Hyrule always seemed to have more dangerous enemies than most of the others, save for maybe Hyrule's Hyrule. The first time they came here, the guardians especially gave everyone a scare. Not to mention the giant lynels. All of which were just more reasons it was important to find those two, preferably fast.

He shifted into his wolf form (aptly named Wolfie, by the others, very clever if he did say so himself) and quickly ran in the same direction the other two had gone.

The sun would be coming up soon, he just hoped he would be able to find them before that time. He would like it better if everyone didn't know anyone was gone in the first place, it didn't quite sit right with him when people got worried about things. Especially things that have already been handled. He knew that if anyone were to know that Wind and Wild were gone, everyone except perhaps Time would be on their case about it. Sky especially would be worried, even more so if they were hurt. He'd like to think they wouldn't be though, Wild has always been pretty knowledgeable about the monsters and dangers in his Hyrule, knowing what types of weapons to use on certain enemies, what types of weapons to not use on certain enemies, what enemies he wasn't able to take down at the time, and many other things.

A giant puddle of murky water interrupted his thoughts, it seems he accidentally stepped into a bit of a swamp area. Now all the way up to his knees are going to be covered in muddy sludge. Fantastic. This is where the scent of those two were headed, though. Why would they come through a swamp for? Unless they were taken here by something but even that he doubted, there wasn't any indication that something had attacked them, much less taken them somewhere.

His question soon got answered though, as he trudged deeper into the swamp, their scents were getting harder to distinguish the further he went in. So this was probably planned, then. Wild knew that he was Wolfie, and probably set this up just in case he came looking for them! He huffed. Of course he would pull something like this. He may be wild but he isn't stupid.

At least he knew now that this was something that was planned, and that they most likely weren't in any tangible danger. But that's no excuse to stop searching, so he continued on his way.

***

Earlier…

"Hey uh, Wild? Don't you think it's a little stupid to walk through a bunch of mud? Not saying this isn't fun! It's just…I don't really understand why we're doing it," Wind said.

"Maybe sometimes walking through some mud does you good once in a while," Wild returned.

"If you say so, oh wise one."

Of course, Wild knew the real reason for this, but he'd rather not tell Wind, just in case Twi didn't want all that spilled yet. But also this was going to start dragging on if he didn't do something about it, "Wind?," he said, "you wanna play a game?"

"Sure! What kind of game?," he asked, "like uhhh, hide and seek? Or… I spy? Or um. Actually I can't think of many things to play in a swamp, my guy, cause it's… it's a swamp."

Wild wasn't sure what games to play either if he was being honest, so he tried to come up with one on the spot. Can't let Wind know he's trying to make a boring trip more interesting. "Well sure it's a swamp," he started slowly, "But that doesn't mean fun can't be had with it!" Think Wild think. "You have frogs out on your island right? Little green dudes? They look like rocks unless you're looking closely, kinda."

"I know what a frog is, Wild."

"Okay good then! A lot of them generally like to live here in the swamps, so I figured it would be a fun game to see who can catch the most of them in say…ten minutes? Winner gets…bragging rights?"

"And what happens to the loser?," Wind inquired, he was a bit interested in this, getting a little dirty never hurt nobody and catching frogs seemed fun.

Wild thought for a second, "They have to…" he was drifting a bit, all he could think of right now was Zelda's excited exclamation of, "Taste it!," while holding up a frog of her own. "Loser has to lick it. Just once, i'm not going to torture you."

Wind smirked mischievously, "Who said that I was gonna be the one to lose? And to think I called you the wise one…foolish."

Oh he was going to lose alright, Wild had a knack for catching these things having to catch them quite often for potions and such. After a few short moments of talking over the rules and how to start, they were off. Both of them bolted in two different directions, on the hunt for some frogs.

Wind took the first chance he saw to go over to a big area full of rocks and boulders. "There's gotta be a bunch of 'em hiding here," he thought. And voila, the first rock he picked up had a little frog underneath. However, it quickly spat some water at him and hopped away. "Hey! Rude!," Wind exclaimed, "Get back here!" He went off, chasing the frog even though it was clearly long gone by now.

Wild on the other hand was doing a great job so far, laughing at Wind's predicament. He himself currently had the front of his shirt pulled upwards in order to hold all the frogs he had. A few did end up slipping out though. Sure, this was messy, but they'll find somewhere to wash off afterwards, and it's all in good fun, anyways.

After about ten minutes had passed (though it was more like 15) they both made their way back to where they started, and attempted to count their frogs. Both of them had to have been completely soaked at this point, there was muddy water absolutely everywhere. At the end of the count, Wild ended up with 12 frogs total, and Wind with 14. They let the frogs free.

"You're joking. You added a few more frogs to your count that you didn't have originally didn't you!," Wild exclaimed.

"Course not! I ain't no liar! I'm one-hundred percent truthful boy here, Mr. Wise one," Wind said (truthfully), "Now get to lickin!"

And, with much regret, he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus points to anyone who can figure out where they are on the botw map! These chapters should get longer as more interesting stuff happens, so no worries!


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild and Wind go paragliding.

It was nearing about 6am when they came across what Wild called a tower. The name fit too, cause they sure looked like towers. They'd come across a few before but this is the only one that Wind was able to get close enough to in order to touch it. It sure felt like what a tower would feel like, too, at least that's what he thought. It had to be at least 3 feet. Tops.

"Why'd you take us to a tower for?," Wind asked, "didn't you say that you only really came to these once and then left?"

"I did, yeah," Wild began, "but this is probably the highest spot in the area, and for what I wanted to do, i figured it was best." He grabbed onto the tower's netted looking outside and started to climb upwards.

"Wait wait wait, what are you doing?" 

"Climbing?"

"For what? This thing is huge!"

"That's the point, now get up here!" He stopped climbing for a bit to rest on the first platform attached to the tower. "It'll be fun, I promise."

"You know you can be really cryptic when you wanna be," Wind started ascending the tower as well, "Sometimes it's funny, but now i'm just confused."

Wild just snickered and kept going up the tower. And eventually, they were both at the top. "Okay," Wind started inquisitively, "what's the 'fun' activity you have planned for us now, Mr. Wild?"

"Have you ever been paragliding before? I know you're a sailor and all that but I doubt there's many places to, you know, glide in the middle of the ocean."

"Oh! Yeah i've done that before, you forget that there's plenty of islands in the middle of the ocean, I haven't done it very often, but i've done it, it's pretty fun," he stops to pull out the deku leaf, "I use this."

"A big fat leaf?"

"A special big fat leaf! It's magic! I can't use it for too long though or the magic runs out, how do you glide?"

"I use my paraglider," he takes it out, "i'm I don't really think it's magic, I can stay on as long as I can keep a grip on it, though, the ghost of the king did give it to me, so it being magic isn't totally out of the question."

"Whoa really? He just gave it to you? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, it's whatever," Wild states dryly, not wanting to take the conversation this way much longer, "anyways, do you wanna glide with your leaf or hitch a ride with me?"

"Well I don't want to make it harder for you, so I think I'll just use my leaf, what direction are we headed in?" Wind asked.

"Hmm," he didn't really think this though too well, but when does he really ever think much through all the way, It's not like he needed to very often, if something went wrong he'd just try again, "I would say to head back in the direction of camp but," he looks over that way, quickly dismissing the idea, "we'd probably land somewhere wet and swampy and we just got more or less cleaned up, so…" he scans the area over some more, "we could land over in that field," he points, "but that's the complete opposite direction from where we want to go…so…maybe that hill over thataway?" he changes where he's pointing, from the field, over to a small hill closer to camp.

"Sounds good to me! It looks a little far but I'm sure we can make it," Wind stated matter of factly, "Plus it's dry, so, win-win."

"I'm glad you agree!," Wild said, stepping closer to the edge, "Let's go on three yeah?"

"Yep!"

"One,"

"Two,"

"Three!"

They both jumped off the edge of the tower and started gliding towards the hill.

"Wild!," Wind yelled, "you were right! This is way better than just sitting around and doing nothing all day!"

"I told you! When I say something is going to be fun, it will be, don't worry!"

"Oh yeah? Like that time you thought it'd be fun to play dead to scare us all? As a prank? In the middle of battle, even."

Wild just stopped and stared at the ground for a minute. He wasn't pretending to be dead at the time, though, it was a good enough excuse to mask actually being dead with. If it comes off as a joke everyone'll brush it off, even if they're mad at first, "Well no, not like that, that was in bad taste I admit, but when I say things will be fun, they usually are, not always, but usually."

"Yeah I guess you're kinda right then, you can be fun when you want to."

It was made quickly apparent that Wild's paraglider was quite a bit faster than Wind's leaf. Wild had to have been at least a few meters ahead, give or take. It had been a few minutes since they started gliding and Wild was nearing the hill when he heard a short yell from behind him. He looked back to see Wind fumbling with a leaf that no longer seemed to be working. Wild quickly turned around to go help out, but that immediately went to waste as Wind started falling towards the ground. Wild closed his paraglider and went after him, he figured what's the worst that could happen? He'd die? It's not like he hasn't before, but Wind doesn't exactly have that luxury, if you could even call it that. He was too late however, as before he smacked into the ground ungracefully, Wind also did with a muffled splash. Right into shallow muddy water, go figure.

Wild tried to get up to run and check on the clearly unconscious Wind but found when he tried to stand up, both of his legs felt like they were on fire. He hissed through his teeth and tried to compose himself. He couldn’t get a good look to see how bad it was at the moment, considering he was halfway in murky water, so he decided to take his chances and drag himself over to where Wind lay. If this makes it worse, so be it.

When he was over Wind he attempted to look him over, but again, there wasn't much he could see, all things considered. He was unconscious, which means he either hit his head after falling, or hit something else that just hurt enough to make him pass out, neither case scenario was a good one. He tried shaking him a little bit, he didn't want to be too rough though.

"Wind?," he tried, "Wind, buddy, you good?," what a stupid question, fucking stupid, just like this whole stupid trip, "Wind c'mon we can start heading back now," a lie, "It's not too far from here we can make it, you just have to get up first." Wind didn't budge.

Not much progress was being made anyway, so he gave up for the time being. It was probably better to do that anyway, instead of jostle him some more. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

There wasn't much he could do with the sheikah slate either, to call anyone. The only person he has contact with in any way is Wind, and that would be pointless. They would just have to wait for help. However long that may be. Today was going to be a whole lot longer than he originally anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated!


End file.
